Shea Daniels knows what it’s like to have bad credit. More importantly, she knows the steps it takes to get out of debt, has restored her credit rating and can now realistically consider buying her own home.

Daniels is sharing this knowledge with fellow Dooly County residents as well as those who live in nearby Macon County through the Consumer Financial Literacy Program, a project funded by the Governor’s Office of Consumer Affairs and several other partners in 28 counties.

“I never thought about saving,” Daniels says of herself. “I didn’t have a checking or savings account.”

But she did have credit cards. And she used them to buy the best shoes and name-brand jeans.

“I had no idea I couldn’t pay them back,” Daniels says.

But Daniels had the drive to improve her situation. While working at a local poultry plant deboning chicken, she began searching for alternatives to the $8.16/hour job.

“I talked to different people who told me about opportunities for single mothers,” she says. “Miss Debbie Jump at DFCS (the Department of Family and Children Services) let me know the opportunities DFCS had.”

Using the welfare-to-work opportunities, including HOPE scholarships and grants, Daniels went to Middle Georgia Technical College and earned a certificate in computer networking and accounting. About 11/2 years into the program, Daniels became certified to prepare taxes and establish individual retirement accounts for H&R Block. As she was completing the program at Middle Georgia, Daniels heard about a job opening as a program assistant with the Dooly County Extension Office. She began work in September 2003.

Since beginning the CFLP program in Dooly County, Daniels has met with more than 500 adults and more than 400 children and teen-agers. But in addition to teaching others financial literacy, Daniels has passionately incorporated the lessons into her own life.

“Until I joined CFLP, I had never checked my credit record,” she says. When she did, she discovered she had been a victim of identity theft – someone had established credit accounts in her name. “Through the investigation process, some of those charges were removed,” she says. But many of the credit problems were her own and Daniels had to work with the credit card companies to gradually pay off the charges.

“One of the things I learned was that if you call the credit card companies and talk to them, they’ll help you,” she says. “There’s nothing that a credit repair company can do that you can’t do for yourself for free.”

Since beginning her job, Daniels has learned a lot about finances and she’s busy sharing that information with others.

“I’ve had bankers come to meetings and talk about what they look at when they’re considering you for a loan,” she says. “I’ve also had the probate judge talk about what it means if your wages are garnished.”

But sometimes what people need is to examine – and reform – their spending habits.

“For over half of the people I work with, their expenses don’t exceed their income, but they still have problems,” she says. “Sometimes, I have to tell them to take a $20 bill and write down how they spend that $20. Until they do that, they don’t realize how much they spend on sodas and candy at a convenience store or on cigarettes or alcohol. They just don’t realize where their money goes. But once they get in the habit of writing down how they spend their money, then they can start saving some.”

In a few cases, Daniels has worked closely with Neal Joiner, president of the Bank of Dooly.

“We had one customer that had signed up for something over the phone and had a $300 monthly debit. I contacted her and found out it was some sort of internet provider. She had signed up for so many hours and was supposed to get something; she doesn’t even have a computer! It was a straight scam. We got that stopped and she started working with Shea and she’s following Shea’s plan to the letter,” Joiner says.

Then there’s Mae Gussie Jones, who says Daniels, “helped me out aplenty!”

Jones, who is 69 and lives alone in a brightly painted pink and blue house in the nearby community of Pinehurst, was taken advantage of while hospitalized. “Them people got ahold of my account and was writing checks,” she explains. “She came by and talked with me and showed me how the ropes go.”

As a result, Daniels worked with Joiner to have a new checking account opened for Jones. She also explained to Jones that since she had a checking account it wasn’t necessary to buy money orders for $2 each to pay her bills, a practice that had cost her about $20 a month out of her meager income.

In addition to working with adults, Daniels also works closely with youth programs in Dooly and Macon counties to ensure that young people know how to avoid the pitfalls of bad credit.

“For young people, it’s credit cards and cell phones that cause credit problems,” Daniels says. This summer she spent three weeks working with kids on a daily basis as part of the Dooly County Community Enrichment Coalition.

“We went over how advertisers try to encourage you to buy things,” she says. “We discussed needs vs. wants and what we’ve learned from our parents regarding saving and spending.”

As she continues educating her neighbors about financial literacy, Daniels also continues to set an example with her own life.

“I’m in a position to buy a home,” she says. “Now, I’m trying to decide if I want to buy a house that’s already built, or have one built. I’m also deciding where I want to live.”

She also is planning to continue her education, an accomplishment that studies show could result in her earning more than $1 million more during the course of her lifetime than she would have had with only a high school education.

“No matter what I do, I’m going to continue my education,” she says. “I want to get a four-year degree in counseling of some sort, I don’t know whether it will be financial counseling or in the social services area, but I want to continue helping people.”

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